My Little Sabra
by S.A. Thorup
Summary: Sabra the Incarnate lost her traveling companions to a strange black entity that swallows everything in sight. When she is prompted to let the entity take her as well, she enters a world far different from her own. In a new body with new rules of magic, she must navigate this world, find her companions, and get back home. She only hopes the ponies she runs into can help!
1. Prologue - The Vortex

Sabra the Incarnate stood on the grassy knoll, the wind tugging at her cloak and trying to pull her westward. Her long dark-brown hair flowed over her shoulder, and her dark-green eyes were closed. She worked her jaw slightly, ready at any moment to cast a spell should the need arise.

Her aura of manna fingered through the forest around her for a good two-hundred feet, and the strain of it made sweat bead on her skin and her breaths come a bit short. The elf listened to the way the wind rustled the dark pines of the highlands, trying to detect any other sound intermingling with it. With a sigh she opened her eyes and pulled her presence back around her immediate self, and she tugged on the inside of her cloak.

She tried to think what could have happened to them. She had been traveling with three priests of the Gospel of Zarem and four Elemsran soldiers to a small town on western Tyrell's coast called Griffincall. It was supposed to be an easy task to guard the priests to a new place for them to preach. Last night they had set up camp at the bottom of that hill, and when she woke up, everything besides her –– horses, supplies, and people all –– had simply vanished. Even the camp fire had been removed, without a trace of ash or ember.

It sent a shiver of fear through Sabra's chest. It was a fear of not understanding what could have happened while she slept, and why she had been spared from whatever had taken her comrades.

Sabra made her way down the hill and to the trail that led to Griffincall. Her best bet was to head to their original location and hope to meet up with her companions. With only her clothes, armor, and dagger on her, and at least a three day walk ahead of her, she would need to hunt and gather for her food.

She wasn't too worried about finding food. She had familiarized herself enough with Tyrell's wilds that she could identify a number of edible plants, and she could summon a bow of manna to aid her with animals. The hardest part was finding the beasts. However, Sabra ignored her grumbling belly for now, only stopping at a trail-side stream to drink. She hoped to run across her companions before she had to resort to leaving the trail to eat.

She took in the scenery as she walked, enjoying the warm summer sun that filtered through the pines. It was quiet save for the garbling of the stream. Periodically Sabra reached out with her manna, and after three hours of this, she sensed something through the trees. It was almost like touching a lightning-bolt, so strong it came to her senses, and she automatically retracted her manna. She stopped walking at once and concentrated on the direction she had felt the presence.

It was... _rolling_ through the trees. She frowned as she tentatively let her aura drift out again. The feel of it still made her senses jolt, but she forced herself to remain calm. It was drawing closer, and she wrapped her right hand about her dagger pommel and warned the magic in her blood to be ready. Her mouth opened slightly, prepared to cast words of power.

Sabra peered through the trees, anticipating its arrival. What she saw defied reality and sanity. A sparking vortex of darkness passed through trees and bushes, warping and inverting their colors, and when it passed on, the objects had simply disappeared. It floated inches above the earth, floating up and down with small rills, but it silently devoured anything else it touched.

Sabra blinked at it, then frowned.

" _Okavin!"_ she called. A ball of blue-white light appeared before her, then rocketed at the vortex. It disappeared into its abyss. Sabra held out her hands. _"Vay'vin, sa deymez!"_

A semi-transparent wall of manna appeared before her, and then slid at the vortex. It tried to bend over and surround the entity. Sabra fought to mentally hold the spell as the darkness started to make it implode, and then she let it go. It exploded into bits of light, leaving behind a slight cinnamon smell, before those too vanished into the darkness.

Sabra knew she should probably turn and run, but if this thing had taken her companions, she had to stop it from taking anyone else.

" _Vay'erii, sa ki!"_ Sabra invoked. The marking on the back of her right hand glowed bright white, and blue-white flames erupted from her body and surrounded her in a roaring pillar. To her the holy flames of the Moonstone were cool and soothing, but beyond her, it would incinerate anything that stood in her way. Sabra held onto the spell and turned the flames upon the entity.

The flames lunged hungrily at the vortex, which was only a dozen feet away now. They created a cocoon around the darkness, and then the vortex began to swallow the flames with ease.

Sabra's mind let go of the spell, but the flames kept coming from her and going into the entity. She realized that she was no longer controlling the divine Moonstone; sometimes her goddess, Luna, chose whether or not to let the flames come from the Moonstone, and She kept them coming from Sabra's body. Sabra gazed in wide-eyed horror as the vortex rolled towards her. Luna had a reason for letting the manna continue into this gluttonous nightmare, and it was the only thing keeping the Incarnate from running.

Sabra gave a prayer to her gods before the blackness swallowed her whole.


	2. Chapter 1 - Talking Horses

A blanket of sizzling heat covered her entire body. Sabra made to move her arm, but the movement only increased the heat, so she remained still. Her head pounded, her ears rung, and her mouth was as dry as leather. Her eyes were stuck shut.

She heard voices. Sabra made an effort to open her eyes, peeling them open. Everything was aflame in blue and white. More of the flames surrounded her, and after a moment of blank thought, she realized the angry heat was coming from them.

 _But the Moonstone flames..._ She stopped trying to think, finding it increased her migraine, and shut her eyes again. Instead she listened to the voices that were drawing nearer.

"What in Celestia's name happened?!"

"Get more water!"

"Get Wet Briar over here! Somepony's in the fire!"

 _Somepony?_ Sabra wondered.

She cracked her eyes open again when she heard a spray of water and watched as a stream of it purged the Moonstone flames. Most of the aching heat went away as her rescuers let some of the spray hit her. Heavy steps, what she immediately deduced were horse hooves, approached, and she rolled her eyes upward. Several horses looked down at her, silhouetted against the light of a waxing gibbous moon. They had unusually large eyes that sparkled as they looked upon her.

"By Luna's light...an alicorn!" said one of the horses. Sabra frowned. She had definitely never heard a _horse_ talk before. She lifted her head to find their riders, perhaps mistaking the origins of the voices. Her face felt strange, and her neck felt too thick, almost swollen. She could see her nose poking out far too much, and she went cross-eyed looking at it.

"Which princess is she?" another person said. Sabra ignored her own face and swerved her eyes around, still looking for the actual speakers. The horses' mouths kept moving, though, and an uncomfortable chill began to replace her headache.

"Aren't there only four?"

"I've heard rumors about there being _dozens!"_ cried a younger voice.

"I'm Sabra," Sabra offered softly. She worked her jaw. It felt strange to even speak. Her mouth felt all wrong, and her teeth felt too big. She was also mildly surprised to find herself speaking their tongue. She was versed in many languages, and in her bewilderment, she didn't bother to think on it too much.

"Did you see the Devourer, Princess Sabra?" said a female, whose voice seemed to crackle. The horses moved aside as another came forward, and shooting from her brow was a twisting horn. It suddenly glowed with a bright blue aura, casting light across the face of the speaker. The unicorn was white with cerulean eyes, and her ragged cyan mane was streaked with pink. Her limbs were thinner than those of her fellows, and her face was wrinkled and fur thin with age.

Sabra stared at the beast's odd coloring.

"I, that is..." Sabra tried to stand on her legs, but realized she only rose to her hands and feet, on all fours. She stared at her limbs. Not hands or feet –– hooves! She gasped and whirled, turning to look at herself. She was covered in dark brown, almost black fur, and her body was misshapen. She was no longer an elf. She had taken the form of an equine!

Sabra screamed, and in her body's jerking reaction, wings flared from her sides. The other horses or unicorns or whatever they were murmured and backed away, all save for the unicorn mare. Sabra went cross-eyed again trying to look at her lengthened snout, and she tossed her head up when she realized she herself bore a spiraling horn.

Her mane and tail bore a semblance to the flames of the Moonstone, softly flowing and growing tattered like fire at the ends, but weren't hot. Sabra gasped in breaths, mind flown away in her panic. She backed away and slammed into the back of a tree. The jolt of pain it sent through her rump helped bring her mind into focus again, and she regained some control of her breathing.

"Where...am...I?" she rasped. _"What_ am I? What happened to me?!"

The unicorn mare approached, holding a graceful swagger to her steps. She still produced an aura from her horn, and she increased its light to get a better look at Sabra. The other horses approached much more gingerly, some nickering and tossing their heads. Sabra found no riders on them; more had horns, others wings, and some looked like regular horses. Most of their coats came in odd colors. Some bore armor or clothing, and several carried weaponry of some kind.

"I am Wet Briar, captain of the Far Scouting Unit," the unicorn said. "You are in Equestria –– southeastern, to be exact. As to what happened...I think the Devourer happened."

Devourer, Devourer...Sabra finally recalled the vortex in Tyrell's forest, and her separation from her companions. Had they come _here?_ As _horses?_

"I was traveling with others," Sabra said. "Did they come here?"

"If they did, we haven't found them," Wet Briar said. Sabra eyed the unicorn's mouth as she spoke. "Many things have come through the Devourer. You must have a powerful magic to summon those flames; if we hadn't seen them, we may have not found you until morning, and then a fairly toasted pony. You burned down a good bit of the forest too."

Sabra shook her head, swallowing heavily.

"I need to find them and get back home," she said. "But I'm not feeling well..." She paused, glancing at the other horses...or ponies, as Wet Briar had implied. "May I camp with you until I get my bearings? This is all so much for me, and I'm exhausted."

Wet Briar nodded and gestured with a hoof.

"I think you'll have plenty of time to tell us a few stories, Princess Sabra," Wet Briar agreed. Sabra felt her heart tighten in her chest at the title.

"I'm not a princess...at least, not anymore," Sabra said as gently as she could, although she ended up sounding irritated. "Please, just call me Sabra."

Wet Briar chuckled, turning away.

"You may have to get used to it, Sabra," she replied. The other ponies followed Wet Briar into the darkness, although one of them remained behind. It was a stallion with a golden coat and a short blue mane, and he was dressed in black leather armor edged with gold. He bore wings on his sides.

Sabra eyed him, and then followed Wet Briar. All of her skin still stung from the residue of the heat, so she walked slowly to reduce the pain. The pegasus stallion made sure she would be alright before walking a little behind her, and the ponies faded into the trees.


End file.
